- Feb. 28, 2012: A new soccer field for detainees at Camp 6 in Guantanamo Bay
With up to $1 trillion in defense
spending cuts planned over the next decade, the Obama administration has
curiously managed to spend $750,000 in taxpayer funds on a year-long
construction project for a detainee soccer field at Gitmo.
Though it’s a tough choice to say who
deserves more blame for such apparent waste, fraud and abuse, the genius
who thought up the soccer field in the first place, or the contractor
fleecing Uncle Sam for a small dirt field surrounded by a green fence,
one thing is certain – this episode shows President Obama’s priorities in action.
Immediately after being sworn in, Mr. Obama’s first series of actions pertained to “fixing the mess at Guantanamo,”
as he put it. This entailed an executive order to close it within a
year, banning all coercive interrogations, halting the military
commission then in progress against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 co-defendants, and an immediate review of detention operations.
Just weeks later, the Vice Chief of Naval
Operations, a four-star admiral, personally led the two-week review at
Gitmo. The comprehensive study looked at 27 areas of interest, and
confirmed what most Americans already knew – that detainees were treated
humanely, and detention operations were in compliance with the Geneva
Conventions. Though keeping the president’s intent in mind, the panel
dutifully recommended several measures to make life more comfortable for
detainees, and thus theoretically decrease frequent assaults on the
guard force.
Among the recommendations were providing
detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11
plotters, with “more human-to-human contact, recreation opportunities
with several detainees together, intellectual stimulation and group prayer.”And with those recommendations designed to keep about 200 Al Qaeda and Taliban
fighters and facilitators as happy as they could possibly be on their
windswept bluff overlooking the Caribbean, came related costs that we’re
now seeing drag on for years.
To be honest, even during the Bush administration
--apart from Gitmo’s first few months in early 2002 when detainees were
kept in quickly improvised outdoor facilities at a place called Camp
X-Ray -- they already did have it pretty good compared to most mainland
U.S. prisons.
For those who were “compliant” and obeyed
camp rules, they had outdoor recreation opportunities all day long,
including basketball, jogging, gardening – and yes, even soccer.
By the time the Chinese separatist Uighurs were ready to be freed to other far-flung garden spots like Bermuda and Palau, they were getting the Naval Station’s franchise Pizza Hut delivery to their communal compound. Seriously.
So why did Mr. Obama commit to sink all this money into improving the lives of Gitmo detainees even further?
It’s simple. He had no idea what he was
talking about when it came to Gitmo. He had no clue what it was really
like when he was campaigning, when he was elected, and when he was
eventually sworn in.
Though he did buy into the left-wing hype
about “restoring the rule of law,” conveniently ignoring the fact that
the country was forced into a war with radical Islam
and that Gitmo’s detention facilities were consistent with the “law of
war,” allowing nations to hold enemy combatants until the end of
hostilities.
He also adopted the misleading narrative fueled by the left that abusing detainees was the norm.
In reality, exhaustive investigations show
less than 1% of detainees were ever abused, and mostly the result of
desperate interrogations to prevent a second 9/11.
Mr. Obama apparently saw Gitmo as the
perfect way to kick-off his world tour of apology, and go along with the
desires of the international community. Sad to say, it's now three
years later, and he hasn’t changed a bit.
With Gitmo serving as one highly symbolic
platform, Obama roundly condemned the Bush administration while
simultaneously ushering in a new era of America with a promise of hope
and change. Though he was high on hopes, his change was for the worse.
It’s a new and weaker America we live in today.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/03/02/new-guantanamo-soccer-field-shows-obamas-priorities-in-action/#ixzz1o1Ye1ox3
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